This season hasn’t quite panned out the way Richard Panik had hoped after inking a two-year extension with the Chicago Blackhawks during the offseason, but the 26-year-old winger is excited for a fresh opportunity in Arizona.
The Coyotes on Wednesday executed a process two years in the making when they traded forward Anthony Duclair to the Blackhawks in exchange for Panik and former Coyotes prospect Laurent Dauphin. Defenseman Adam Clendening was also sent to Chicago.
Although Duclair gathered much of the media attention given the comments of John Chayka, the team’s president of hockey operations and general manager, the idea of the Blackhawks parting ways with Panik is equally intriguing.